Michael Cohen's 4th day of testimony could touch on Russia, finances

President Donald Trump’s former lawyer is returning to Capitol Hill for a fourth day of testimony as Democrats pursue a flurry of investigations into Trump’s White House, businesses and presidential campaign.Michael Cohen became a key figure in those investigations after turning on his former boss and cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. He was interviewed behind closed doors by both the Senate and House intelligence committees last week and is due for another private, daylong meeting with the House intelligence panel on Wednesday.

Cohen also testified publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, where he called Trump a con man, a cheat and a racist. He pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and other charges and is set to begin a three-year prison sentence in May.

Among the issues discussed in Cohen’s closed-door interviews with both the House and the Senate was the issue of pardons, according to people familiar with those interviews. They requested anonymity to speak about the confidential discussion.

The issue is expected to come up again during Cohen’s return visit. Though Cohen told Congress last week that he had never asked for nor would accept a pardon from Trump, a lawyer for Cohen expressed interest to the Trump legal team in a possible pardon for his client in the aftermath of a raid last April on Cohen’s hotel room, home and office, according to people familiar with the encounter who weren’t authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity.